SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – Women’s and girls’ sports have a long history in Iowa and Sioux city, but the journey to popularity and inclusive competition took a long time.
People were resistant of young girls and women playing sports. They thought aggressive nature did not fit with the standards for women in the early 1900s, but in the early days some women wanted to be on the basketball court, golf course, swimming pools and on the track.
Some women even tried to blaze trails like the 1902 Morningside Basketball team that had many victories before the Methodist church, who was affiliated with the college, that was not excited about their decision to play.
“They were in such disapproval, that Morningside got in so much trouble basically, that they could not offer interscholastic girls’ basketball for many, many years after that,” said Theresa Weaver, curator of education for the Sioux City Public Museum.
Starting in the 1920s, small rural schools started to really take to girls’ basketball. Traditions and excitement ensued, but it was a different game. It was played with six players on the half court. Three players would play offense against three defenders, and they could only dribble twice. Once the defense got the ball, their goal then was to get the ball back to their offensive players to attack the basket.
“Girls learned how to play it, and utilized all the advantages that they could find in the game. But it was very different from the full court game,” Weaver said.
Sioux city public schools were slow to get into women’s sports. They did not begin interscholastic sports until the early 70s after the school district consolidated to three high schools. That’s when they started with swimming, track and gymnastics before picking up six player basketball in 1973.
While Sioux City High Schools were slow to adapt interscholastic girls’ sports within the high schools, they were quick to jump on five girl basketball transition from the half court six player basketball.
This came after a court case in 1984 that allowed schools to pick between full court basketball and the storied 6 on 6 version. Sioux City elected to play full court basketball because of players missing opportunities to get college scholarships to play basketball.
“They would not give scholarships to girls who were guards. The girls out of that came out of that six player in Iowa to go on to play in college were generally forwards who had a lot more ball handling experience and shooting experience,” said Weaver.
Now The Caitlin Clark Effect is real. Many Iowa high school athletes are competing at the top level.
Iowa has a strong history of girls’ basketball’s basketball as one time in in the 50s, 70% of high school girls played basketball. In 1971, 20% of high school girl athletes in the country were from Iowa.
“You don’t just all of a sudden turn the page from six player to five player and have the kind of prowess that they have today. It has taken a couple of decades for girls’ basketball to really develop and the players to develop and we’re seeing that now. And it’s just going to get better and better,” Weaver said.
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